Chuck Sweeny: Manzullo says new health law sings O Canada’

Saturday

Mar 27, 2010 at 12:01 AMMar 27, 2010 at 6:57 PM

Republicans bet the store on defeating the Democrats’ health care bill, and lost. The minority GOP was so confident it could “kill the bill” with a relentless scare campaign, they had no backup plan ready to go.

Chuck Sweeny

Republicans bet the store on defeating the Democrats’ health care bill, and lost. The minority GOP was so confident it could “kill the bill” with a relentless scare campaign, they had no backup plan ready to go. Late in the week before Sunday’s vote, the party came up with a new strategy: “repeal and replace.” With what, I’m not sure. Anyway, that won’t happen. Even if Republicans take over Congress in November they won’t have a veto-proof majority. President Barack Obama won’t allow repeal of his signature piece of legislation.

And what if people actually like the law once it’s in effect? Republicans have not planned for that contingency.

Fourteen Republican state attorneys general are going another route. They filed suit in federal court claiming the new law is unconstitutional because it relies on the Interstate Commerce Clause to force uninsured people to buy private health insurance or pay a fine. But those people aren’t engaging in interstate commerce, argue the AGs, so they can’t be regulated.

States can force people to buy insurance, though. Massachusetts has “Romney-care,” and everyone must buy private health insurance. “Obama-care” is based loosely on “Romney-care,” named for former GOP governor Mitt Romney, who signed the Bay State’s health care bill into law. Who says this reform stuff isn’t bipartisan?

Most legal experts don’t think the federal suits will succeed.

U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo, R-Egan, has been a fierce critic of Obama-care. The conservative says the law is designed to lead to a Canadian-style single-payer system.

“It’s a setup to be a complete takeover. The government has the authority to set insurance rates. They can tell a company they don‘t think an increase is justified, and the company could go out of business. This is designed so the insurance companies will collapse, “ Manzullo said.

Not all conservatives agree. Scott Richert, writing at chroniclesmagazine.org, the Web site of Chronicles, the magazine of The Rockford Institute, says Obama-care is a big, fat gift to insurance companies.

“Just as Big Pharma was the chief beneficiary of President Bush’s Medicare prescription coverage bill, so Big Insurance has Barack Obama to thank for their coming years of plenty,” Richert writes in a piece called “The Triumph of the Insurance Companies.”

Manzullo says Obama-care has surprises people don’t yet realize, like the fact that a lot of the provisions don’t kick in until 2014. And there’s a Medicaid surprise for the states, Manzullo said.

“The sleeper in this bill is that of the 32 million people to be covered, 16 million will be automatically enrolled in Medicaid, which will cover incomes up to 133 percent of the poverty level. Those people will have insurance without even knowing it,“ Manzullo said. (“Those people” might be pleasantly surprised to learn they’ll be covered.)

“The state of Illinois will add 330,000 to Medicaid rolls because of this bill. And the additional amount that Illinois would incur would be from $400 million to $600 million a year. The federal government supposedly will pick up the cost of the increase,” he said.

What isn’t clear to anyone is where we’ll get all the new doctors and nurses to treat the new people.

One part of the new health care law Manzullo really likes is the $10 billion boost in funding for community health centers, including Crusader Community Health. The money was added to the bill by Sen. Bernie Sanders. The Vermont independent is our only openly socialist senator. Talk about strange bedfellows.